Author: Peter Gray

There’s always a certain joy in seeing someone you know personally excel in their chosen field of expertise. And for Peter Gray it was chatting with Queensland actress (and long-historied friend) Melanie Zanetti in conjunction with the release of Raven’s Hollow. After catching up and filling more than a few interview minutes on celebrating each…

Like so many of the House of Mouse’s IPs, Hocus Pocus has been conjured once more.  Disney weren’t entirely sure they had a success on their hands some 30 years ago with the release of the original film – what with the studio releasing a Halloween-themed family film in July, for starters – and were…

A buddy comedy centred around a suicide pact isn’t exactly going to be the easiest sell (or the most pleasant viewing experience), and coming out on the other side of a global pandemic where mental health issues surged certainly doesn’t help matters either, but here we are with On the Count of Three, an at-times…

Celebrating its 28th year, Queensland’s brightest celebration of film, the Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF), announces its eagerly awaited program and new festival hub, lighting up screens over 11 days from October 27 to November 6, 2022.  This year BIFF will delight audiences with a diverse selection of Award-Winning films, anticipated releases from acclaimed directors,…

As the Edgar Allan Poe-inspired Raven’s Hollow begins to haunt horror streaming service Shudder just in time for the spooky season (you can read our review here), Peter Gray spoke with writer/director Christopher Hatton about navigating gothic horror, what he hopes Poe purists will take away from the film, and their own personal connection to each…

Not exactly an origin story in the traditional – or autobiographical – sense, but a healthy start all the same as to how legendary horror writer Edgar Allan Poe fuelled his creativity for all things macabre, Christopher Hatton‘s Raven’s Hollow indulges in the author’s aesthetic for an atmospheric chiller that favours story over scares. In…

Given how wild everyone – or teenage girls, to be a little more accurate – are for pop’s main man-candy Harry Styles, it will no doubt throw much of his female following off as to how graphic the sexual scenes are in My Policeman, a queer love story that perseveres with grand intentions but, sadly,…

One of the more unlikely franchises of a resilient nature, V/H/S/, a retro-appearing horror anthology effort that often compiles a series of genre directors flexing their creative muscle through short horror narratives, is now in its fifth iteration in the form of V/H/S/99. The horror tales that often are confined within the V/H/S/ films are always…

When The Wonder first begins there’s a rather pretentious and, ultimately, unrewarding additive that runs the risk of undoing all that will follow.  Niamh Algar‘s soothing vocal tone greets us as our eyes glaze over a constructed film set.  Algar informs us that we are indeed watching a film, but the players involve believe in…

Though he certainly didn’t lose any of his sense of comfort by travelling across the Atlantic for his last film – 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – there’s a sense of grandeur in writer/director Martin McDonagh returning to his homeland for The Banshees of Inisherin, an impossibly funny and, at times, heartbreakingly bleak dramedy…

As much as this film titles itself after an infant whose actions drive much of its horrifically-laced narrative forward, it’s the newborn’s mother that earns much of the focus in Baby Ruby, an unsettling psychological drama from Bess Wohl, the writer/actress making her directorial debut here. That mother is Jo (Noémie Merlant, best known for…

If you’re one of the many that have laughed on repeated viewings of Bridesmaids (and hopefully the underrated Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) then it’s because of Annie Mumolo.  A writer and actress who has long been a reliable staple in the comedy genre, she’s once again making her presence undeniably known…

The idea of a Fletch remake/reboot/sequel has long been discussed for almost three decades now.  The obvious suggestions of Jason Lee and Jason Sudeikis were thrown around for contention to follow in Chevy Chase’s comedic footsteps during its production, but after consistent stop/starts it has fallen to Jon Hamm to pick up the mantle and…

“Mommy and Daddy will be right next to you the whole time.” From the opening line of dialogue in Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans, an autobiographical coming-of-age tale that boasts itself as his first writing credit since A.I. some two decades prior, we get a sense of what’s to come as, outside a New Jersey movie…

There’s something incredibly refreshing about The Good Nurse in that its true-crime temperament isn’t marred by overt manipulation – as so many of such adapted tales can be. Jessica Chastain (as typically great and committed as expected) is Amy, the titular good nurse, a single mother who is hiding her own ailment as she dedicates…

The claustrophobic and emotional resonance Florian Zeller created with 2020’s The Father is unfortunately nowhere to be found in The Son, a prequel of sorts based off another of Zeller’s stage plays. A chamber piece on the subject of dementia that rightfully won Anthony Hopkins his second Best Actor Academy Award, The Father expressed subtlety…

Rian Johnson had far too much fun paying homage to the works of Agatha Christie in 2019’s star-studded crime comedy Knives Out.  To say he executed it perfectly would be putting it mildly, but whilst a sequel to such a set-up seemed like a given, how anything secondary would be navigated was another mystery in…

Few actors possess and exude as much movie star wattage as George Clooney and Julia Roberts.  And it’s his attractive gruffness and her screen-lighting smile that keep Ticket To Paradise from being a destination you’d request a refund for. Local audiences – predominantly those based in Queensland – are sure to get a thrill from…

If X was Ti West‘s homage to classic 70’s horror effort The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, then Pearl could almost be aligned with The Wizard of Oz, just with, you know, a lot more blood and dry-humping scarecrows. The fact that X was an initial singular success story was enough of a win for independent horror…

At only 25 years old, Kaitlyn Dever is already over a decade into her career. From Bad Teacher(‘s pet) to Booksmart by way of Beautiful Boy, the Golden Globe-nominated actress is now navigating a genre she has yet to tackle; the romantic comedy. Starring alongside Julia Roberts and George Clooney in Ticket To Paradise, where…

A low-key slice of independent cinema that you imagine wouldn’t be given as big of a spotlight had it not been for lead Jennifer Lawrence, Causeway nonetheless deserves its attention as it’s a determined and moving picture about one’s healing, both emotionally and physically. Adhering to the stripped-away mentality that drove her to her first…

Putting together two of the biggest movie stars is always going to come with a certain electric dynamic.  When it’s George Clooney and Julia Roberts? Chaos! And that’s meant in the best possible way. Ahead of the release of their anticipated romantic comedy reunion Ticket To Paradise, where they play a duo of exes who…

A feast for the eyes and the ears, Brett Morgen‘s Moonage Daydream is a headfirst dive into the unmatched, other-worldly psyche of the one and only, David Bowie.  In some aspects Morgen – who is no stranger to the musician-centred medium, having helmed the Nirvana doco Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck – has adopted an…

Moonage Daydream is not a documentary.  It is a genre-defying cinematic experience based on one of the most iconic and global rock stars of all time: David Bowie. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Brett Morgen, director of Cobain: Montage of Heck, and featuring never-before-seen concert footage, Moonage Daydream is an immersive cinematic experience; an audio-visual space…

There’s both a sense of adhering to the temperaments of action films gone by and embracing the current and future state of the genre present in Jalmari Helander‘s Sisu. Matching its dark sense of humour (and I mean dark) with a violently bloody mentality (and I mean bloody!), Sisu manages to present the simplest of…

Author Angie Thomas has become something of a contemporary prose lyricist for the new wave of young coloured youths through her breakout novels The Hate U Give and On The Come Up.  Breathing a certain life into their own coming of age stories, her words prove a promising soundboard for actress Sanaa Lathan‘s foray into…

On September 7th each year, people stop and reflect on the fact that on this very date in 1936, Australia’s Tasmanian tiger slipped over the extinction line.  Sixty years later, in 1996, WWF Australia (World Wildlife Fund) founded in partnership with the Australian Government’s Natural Heritage Trust the National Threatened Species Day to commemorate the…

In August 2020, Alexei Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition was poisoned with a lethal nerve agent in an assassination attempt.  In the months following, the shocking revelations about the attempt on his life came to light during his road to recovery, a process that was captured by award-winning director Daniel Roher in his…

When watching Mean Spirited I couldn’t help but wonder why Jeff Ryan isn’t a household name.  As a director he has worked within a duo of spaces that have well been tested – the mockumentary comedy and the found footage subsect of horror – but both this and his previous effort (YouthMin) prove he has…

Fired from her seventh job in two years and estranged from her family, Audrey (Jena Malone) is restless and dwells in a distinctly modern solitude, relying on YouTube for companionship. After falling down a video rabbit hole, she discovers the world of adult adoption and decides to try it herself in hopes of finding a…